Career Lingo: ‘Degree Completed by …’
Career Lingo: ‘Degree Completed by ...'
February 11, 2015 (more…)...
Avoiding PTDS: Post-Tenure Depression Syndrome
Avoiding PTDS: Post-Tenure Depression Syndrome
Why are the years after academics have ‘made it’ so gloomy for so many?
Marc Worrell / Creative Commons
By David D. Perlmutter
Iknow about two dozen academics who were tenured and promoted to associate professor last year. They traverse the spectrum of the academy, from engineers to language scholars to sociologists. They work at community colleges, research universities, and small liberal-arts colleges. They range in personality type from the quiet and studious to the brash and outspoken.
None of them are visibly happy.
I mean the kind of career-related elation thatwe’re familiar with in popular culture and in the lives of nonacademics: the giddy joy of football players doing back flips and high fives after winning a big game or, more equivalently, the champagne-popping business professional who has just gotten a major promotion. In contrast, most of the new associate professors I know were so low-key about their promotions that I found out only via a title change on their...
Don’t Kill the Conference Interview
Don't Kill the Conference Interview
January 20, 2015
Image: Tommy Kirk as Travis Coates in Old Yeller (1957), directed by Robert Stevenson
Rebecca Schuman recently called for the death of the conference interview for faculty jobs. A key reason she listed was the expense, citing the Modern Language Association’s recent convention in Vancouver as a case in point. In fact, she went to considerable length to prove that anyone traveling to Vancouver for the meeting would need to spend more than $1,000.
Case closed -- on Vancouver and MLA. But a data point is not a universal. Many faculty members with full-time jobs and many graduate students seeking employment still think the conference interview is a useful enterprise.
First, academia is not a monolith. A Ph.D. holder in German (Schuman’s field) might view the job market as a Kesselschlacht (a confused cauldron battle). But my own area of communications is in the fifth year of a boom in tenure-track hiring. We get only 20 to 40 applicants for...
Don’t Fear Fund Raising, Part 4
December 1, 2014
Don't Fear Fund Raising, Part 4
Why it’s important to be pedantic about donor intent
Money Hedge / Creative Commons
By David D. Perlmutter
Agift to your department can seem so straightforward, like the first time a donor told me, "I want to endow a scholarship for a student." Easy enough, I thought. Then a development officer explained that in accepting this seemingly simple gift, we had to satisfy tax laws, foundation rules, departmental mission and priority, and "donor intent."
That last criterion was the one that needed the most painstaking definition. What did the donor mean by "student"? An undergraduate, a graduate student, or either? A student already in good standing in our major or a first-year recruit? Could the student be a double major or just minoring in our field? Would requirements include a certain GPA in high school or college? Was there a geographic condition on the gift—that the recipient come from a particular high school or the donor’s home...
TOP’S TEN 88.1 KTXT: Episode 18
Episode #18 of my radio show TOP’S TEN is up! TOP’S TEN seeks out successful and influential people in politics and government, the many professions, the physical and social sciences, or the arts and humanities and asks them to reveal their lives, ideas and ideals through their playlist. Our format is simple: We ask our guests what pieces of music mean the most to them and to tell us the story behind the infatuation.
Broadcast: 28 September 2014
Guest: Dave Walker, Owner, Walker Communications, KJDL-FM, KJDL-AM
Song List:
1. Not Fade Away – Buddy Holly
2. Words Of Love – Buddy Holly
3. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles
4. Harvest – Neil Young
5. Helplessly Hoping – CSN&Y
6. Tusk – Fleetwood Mac
7. Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way? – Waylon Jennings
8. You’re No Good – Linda Ronstadt
9. Tracks Of My Tears – Smokey Robinson
10. With A Little Help From My Friends – Joe Cocker
...
TOP’S TEN 88.1 KTXT: Episode 17
Episode #17 of my radio show TOP’S TEN is up! TOP’S TEN seeks out successful and influential people in politics and government, the many professions, the physical and social sciences, or the arts and humanities and asks them to reveal their lives, ideas and ideals through their playlist. Our format is simple: We ask our guests what pieces of music mean the most to them and to tell us the story behind the infatuation.
Broadcast: 21 September 2014
Guest: Morris Wilkes, Owner, The Wilkes Company, A Government Relations, Public Affairs and Political Consulting Firm
Song List:
1. If – David Gates & Bread
2. We’ve Only Just Begun – The Carpenters
3. Precious And Few – Climax
4. You Light Up My Life – Debbie Boone
5. Memories – Elvis Presley
6. Don’t Pull Your Love – Hamilton, Joe, Frank & Reynolds
7. Love Can Make You Happy – Mercy
8. Theme from The Summer of ’42 – Peter Nero
9. Joy To The World – Three Dog Night
10. American Pie – Don McLean
...
TOP’S TEN 88.1 KTXT: Episode 16
Episode #16 of my radio show TOP’S TEN is up! TOP’S TEN seeks out successful and influential people in politics and government, the many professions, the physical and social sciences, or the arts and humanities and asks them to reveal their lives, ideas and ideals through their playlist. Our format is simple: We ask our guests what pieces of music mean the most to them and to tell us the story behind the infatuation.
Broadcast: 14 September 2014
Guest: Lance Nail, Ph.D., CFA, Dean and Professor of Finance at the Texas Tech University Jerry S. Rawls College of Business Administration
Song List:
1. Fight The Good Fight – Triumph
2. Man In The Mirror – Michael Jackson
3. End Of The Innocence – Don Henley
4. Tick Tock – The Vaughan Brothers
5. Let It Be – The Beatles
6. Sympathy For The Devil – The Rolling Stones
7. After The Thrill Is Gone – Eagles
8. Stars Fell On Alabama – Jimmy Buffett
9. Friends In Low Places – Garth Brooks
10. I’ll Be...
TOP’S TEN 88.1 KTXT: Episode 15
Episode #15 of my radio show TOP’S TEN is up! TOP’S TEN seeks out successful and influential people in politics and government, the many professions, the physical and social sciences, or the arts and humanities and asks them to reveal their lives, ideas and ideals through their playlist. Our format is simple: We ask our guests what pieces of music mean the most to them and to tell us the story behind the infatuation.
Broadcast: 31 August 2014
Guest: Katharine Hayhoe, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Public Administration program, and Director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University
Song List:
1. How Great Thou Art – Elvis Presley
2. Prelude & Fugue No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 847 by Johann Sebastian Bach – Glenn Gould
3. Real Canadian Girl – Stompin’ Tom Connors
4. Fotografia – Juanes featuring Nelly Furtado
5. Where The Streets Have No Name – U2
6. If I Had A Million Dollars – Barenaked Ladies
7. Losing My Religion – R.E.M.
8. That’s Right (You’re Not...
TOP’S TEN 88.1 KTXT: Episode 14
Episode #14 of my radio show TOP’S TEN is up! TOP’S TEN seeks out successful and influential people in politics and government, the many professions, the physical and social sciences, or the arts and humanities and asks them to reveal their lives, ideas and ideals through their playlist. Our format is simple: We ask our guests what pieces of music mean the most to them and to tell us the story behind the infatuation.
Broadcast: 27 July 2014
Guest: Mark Webb, Ph.D., Professor and Chairman, Texas Tech University Department of Philosophy
Song List:
1. Abide With Me – Text by Henry Francis Lyte, music by William Henry Monk, performed by The Brothers of the Society of St. John the Evangelist
2. Skye Boat Song – performed by Kathryn Alison Aker
3. Without You – Harry Nilsson
4. Recuerdos De La Alhambra – Mike Oldfield
5. Dance In The Shadows – Tom Paxton
6. Skating Away – Jethro Tull
7. Five Miles Out – Mike Oldfield
8. Back In The High Life – Steve...
TOP’S TEN 88.1 KTXT: Episode 13
Episode #13 of my radio show TOP’S TEN is up! TOP’S TEN seeks out successful and influential people in politics and government, the many professions, the physical and social sciences, or the arts and humanities and asks them to reveal their lives, ideas and ideals through their playlist. Our format is simple: We ask our guests what pieces of music mean the most to them and to tell us the story behind the infatuation.
Broadcast: 20 July 2014
Guest: Jim Ferguson, Former CEO of Young & Rubicam advertising company in New York and the 2002 Inductee into the TTU Mass Communications Hall of Fame
Song List:
1. Ring Of Fire, Johnny Cash
2. Sweet Rosie Jones, Buck Owens
3. He Stopped Loving Her Today, George Jones
4. Sergeant Pepper, The Beatles
5. It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll, The Rolling Stones
6. Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay, Otis Redding
7. Heart Of Gold, Neil Young
8. It Was A Good Day, Ice Cube
9. Anticipation, Carly Simon
10. Born Free, Kid Rock
...